The following info is from my notes on a talk I gave. Someone asked me to discuss:
"What's going on in Israel?"
Why
would nuclear weapons in the hands of the Iranian Ayatolla be of
concern to Israel?
Nothing interests us more as Bible students than The Kingdom of God on earth. So I will talk more specifically regarding Israel in prophecy, and how that relates to the kingdom of God being manifest on earth, and this will be through the prism of current events.
Anyone who understands even a little history knows about the hatred toward the Jewish people shown by the nations during the Holocaust. Anyone with the least amount of awareness of the reason for the Jewish state knows about the slogan "Never Again" and what that means. Anyone with access to news reports can tell that there is an ongoing attempt to destroy the state of Israel and the Jews within it.
ANYONE WITH ACCESS TO A BIBLE should know a lot already regarding the Holy Land and the people of the book. I read recently that The Bible is still the best selling, most popular book in the world. If as many people who owned a Bible actually read one, they would know the following Scriptures regarding Israel through the eyes of prophecy.
Isaiah 43:5-6,21 - "Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, `Give them up!' and to the south, `Do not hold them back.' Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth..."
Ezekiel 20:34 - "I will bring you from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered -- with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath."
Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble;
but he shall be saved out of it.
As we race toward the 70th Anniversary of May 14, 1948 we recall What Jesus said in Matthew 24:
32Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:33So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. 34Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. 35Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.If a "generation" is 70 years, and it may be, then we are two weeks away (at this writing) from the end of that span in which "all these things" would be fulfilled. We leave for later discussion as to what all those things entail, however...
What About Ezekiel 38?
Bible Students expect this is a future scenario. It may be past.
These are Pastor Russell's comments on Ezek 38:1,2. Click the links to read more...1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
The day of the LORD – Already begun. R286:5[R286:25]
When the first return of Israelites to Palestine will have taken place. R286:3
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Gather all nations – Gog and Magog, the hosts of merciless plunderers of regathered Israel. D554,D555
...a bit of ackground on the Temple Mount...
When
Israel was declared a state on May of 1948, 7 arab armies attacked.
Israel survived, but lost half of the city of Jerusalem to the arabs.
This included the sacred Temple Mount, holy to both Jews and Arabs, but
more so to Jews.
In June of 1967, at the climax of the Six Day War, Israel’s paratroops broke through the enemy to take Jerusalem back from the arabs, which they had lost in 1948, 19 years earlier. The commander emotionally announced the words that still resonate to this day, "The Temple Mount is in our hands."
Shortly thereafter, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, fearing the potential Islamic and international outcry, shamefully robbed Israel of at least part of its great victory, by handing over the keys of the holiest place in Judaism to the Muslims.
For those who are unaware, this holy site is the plateau on which the two Temples of Israel had stood for hundreds of years. Below it, at its western retaining wall, Jews had shed bitter tears for centuries. For that reason, it was known to many as the Wailing Wall. Since that miraculous week in 1967, when all of eastern Jerusalem fell back into Israel’s hands, it is known to all as the Western Wall.
Despite the fact that the Western Wall has become somewhat of a shrine for the Jewish people and all visitors from around the world, the Temple Mount above it has remained the ultimate symbol of Israel’s former unified sovereign kingdom, with its capital in Jerusalem.
In June of 1967, at the climax of the Six Day War, Israel’s paratroops broke through the enemy to take Jerusalem back from the arabs, which they had lost in 1948, 19 years earlier. The commander emotionally announced the words that still resonate to this day, "The Temple Mount is in our hands."
Shortly thereafter, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, fearing the potential Islamic and international outcry, shamefully robbed Israel of at least part of its great victory, by handing over the keys of the holiest place in Judaism to the Muslims.
For those who are unaware, this holy site is the plateau on which the two Temples of Israel had stood for hundreds of years. Below it, at its western retaining wall, Jews had shed bitter tears for centuries. For that reason, it was known to many as the Wailing Wall. Since that miraculous week in 1967, when all of eastern Jerusalem fell back into Israel’s hands, it is known to all as the Western Wall.
Despite the fact that the Western Wall has become somewhat of a shrine for the Jewish people and all visitors from around the world, the Temple Mount above it has remained the ultimate symbol of Israel’s former unified sovereign kingdom, with its capital in Jerusalem.
RE: Zechariah 14 [click for study]
Bible Students expect yet another battle for Jerusalem where this passage comes finally comes true.
My suggestion is that this passage has seen it's fulfillment in the events of the last 70 years. Let's look again:
compare:
Ezek 38: 11 and thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates;12 to take the spoil and to take the prey; to turn thy hand against the waste places that are now inhabited, and against the people that are gathered out of the nations, that have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the middle of the earth.
2For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
RcB: 1948: the city was "taken", but then half was re-taken by Israel, remaining divided.
Half was off limits, barbed wire no man's zone between...
"houses rifled" was literal AND figurative.
"women ravished" was literal AND figurative
(synagogues destroyed, desecrated)
"residue of the people...not cut off" - Jordanian agreement to allow free access to Holy sites, but didn't abide by it.
from sixdaywar.org
During
the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Transjordan’s Arab Legion attempted to
capture the entire city of Jerusalem, shelling it and cutting off its
Jewish residents from the coastal plain. Western portions of Jerusalem
came under Israel’s control only after Israeli forces
broke the Arab siege of the city. In the first four weeks of Arab
attacks, 200 Jewish civilians were killed and over 1,000 were wounded in
Jerusalem. But, defending themselves, Israeli forces managed to capture
some suburbs and villages from the Arabs.
The
Israeli defenders were not as successful in protecting the Jewish
community of eastern Jerusalem. On May 28, 1948, the Jewish Quarter of
the Old City fell to the Arab Legion.
After
10 months of fighting, an armistice agreement was signed on April 3,
1949, dividing Jerusalem along the November 1948 ceasefire lines of
Israeli and Transjordanian forces, with several areas of no-man’s land.
The armistice line served as a temporary border between what had
formerly been two mixed communities. Western Jerusalem became Israel’s
capital city, while eastern Jerusalem, including the holy sites, was
occupied by Transjordan, which in 1949 became the Hashemite Kingdom of
Jordan. The city was essentially divided between two armed camps
separated by barbed wire, concrete walls, minefields and bunkers.
Upon
its capture by the Arab Legion, the Jewish Quarter of the Old City was
destroyed and its residents expelled. Fifty-eight synagogues--some
hundreds of years old--were destroyed, their contents looted and
desecrated. Some Jewish religious sites were turned into chicken coops
or animal stalls. The Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, where Jews
had been burying their dead for over 2500 years, was ransacked; graves
were desecrated; thousands of tombstones were smashed and used as
building material, paving stones or for latrines in Arab Legion army
camps. The Intercontinental Hotel was built on top of the cemetery and
graves were demolished to make way for a highway to the hotel. The
Western Wall became a slum area.
IN MY HUMBLE VIEW this Zechariah 14 prophecy has been fulfilled. Pastor Russell taught us this passage was synonymous with the Ezekiel 38 vision we now
discuss.
SO FAR FROM THE SCRIPTURES we know that the Jewish people would be scattered, the land desolate, and then they would be regathered and the land would yield her increase once again.
King David said it.... Isaiah said it, Ezekiel said it......
Even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also declared to the people of Europe and the world that the prophecies of Ezekiel 37 have been fulfilled. The Holocaust, he said, represented the "dry bones" and "graves" of the Jewish people, and out of that horror the State of Israel was resurrected, just as the Lord said would happen through the Hebrew Prophet Ezekiel. Rarely has any world leader given a major address on an international stage declaring prophecies from the Bible have come true. But that is exactly what Netanyahu did.
The Israeli news site Yediot Arnhot published an editorial which discussed this, under the premise that, since it is common knowledge that Ezekiel 36 and 37 have taken place already, would it not be safe to assume that both Ezek 38 and 39 will also soon have their fulfillment?
Ezekiel 38
Is about the struggle over the land of Israel
Bro. Russell says in the 4th
volume that we can’t be too sure about the identity of the players.
After extensive reading I am no longer sure what the identity of these nations are any more. It was formerly assumed that GOG and MAGOG referred to Russia and their satellites. This fits the picture to a degree if we see Russia as the arms supplier of the middle eastern enemies of Israel, and if the vision of Ezek 38 doesn't have to happen all in one year, as brother Johnson suggested. However in the same book he also admits to being incorrect about the fulfillment of certain other prophetic utterances of the Bible.
Perhaps, Ezek 38 and Zech 14 are indeed synomomous as bro. Russell said, but that they cover a much longer time of fulfillment. IT IS THIS SUPPOSITION THAT I WILL PROCEED FROM, THAT THE EVENTS OF EZEK 38 are not so much future as they are events of the recent past and current events with some still yet future....
EZEK 38:9 .."LIKE A STORM TO COVER THE LAND"
."......as a cloud to cover the land.."
I SUBMIT THAT THIS REFERS NOT TO A FUTURE INVADING ARMY, but it refers to THE "PALESTINIAN RIGHT OF RETURN." -
which is the Palestinian Arabs demand that all refugees displaced after
the arabs war of annihilation against Israel failed, be allowed to
return to their former homes.
"During the 1948 War – a war which began with Palestinian rejection of the UN Partition Plan, and the subsequent invasion of Arab armies into Israel – between 650,000 and 730,000 Palestinian Arabs were expelled or fled from the area that became Israel, and became refugees. At the same time, around 10,000 Jews were forced to leave their homes in Palestine.
Today, over 1.25 million Arabs are citizens of Israel.
BUT AT THE SAME TIME after the war in 1948 between 750,000 and 1,000,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries.
Today, fewer than 7,000 Jews remain in Arab countries. It is estimated
that Jewish-owned real-estate left behind or confiscated in Arab
countries covers a total of about 100,000 square kilometers – more than
four times the size of the state of Israel. Additional 200,000 Jews from
[non-Arab] Muslim countries left their homes due to increasing
insecurity and growing hostility since 1948. Today over 60% of Israeli Jews are the descendants of displaced Jews from Arab countries.
Jewish
refugees from Arab countries were absorbed by Israel and became equal
citizens. Israel does not demand a “right of return” for Jews into Arab
countries, nor does it demand compensation for confiscated Jewish land
and property from Arab countries."
THIS
IS THE METHOD BY WHICH THE ARABS THINK TO OVERWHELM TINY ISRAEL, WITH
AN INFLUX OF ARABS MANDATED BY THE WORLD NATIONS, TAKING OVER THE LAND
MAKING IT A MAJORITY ARAB NATION, THUS OBLITERATING THE EXISTENCE OF THE
JEWISH STATE. THIS HAS BEEN THEIR PLAN ALL ALONG SINCE THE FAILURE OF
THE HOLOCAUST. IT HAS BEEN WELL DOCUMENTED.
IS GOG -----------RUSSIA-------------?
Feel free to skip these exhaustive notes for the conclusion!
From one website:
"Hesiod, "the father of Greek didactic poetry" identified Magog with
the Scythians and southern Russia in the 7th century B.C. As well,
Hesiod was a contemporary of Ezekiel (as). The term "Rosh" employed by
Ezekial (as) is the etymological root of "Russia."
Herodotus
of Harlicarnassus, known as "Father of History" wrote much about the
descendants of Magog by their Greek name, the Scythians, in the 5th
century B.C. Archaeological discoveries have confirmed Herodotus'
reports. Flavius Josephus records that the Magogians were called
"Scythians" by the Greeks. Philo, in the 1st century, identifies Magog
with southern Russia.
----------------------------------------------------------------TO
BACK THIS CLAIM:::: many Bible Expositors, including Pastor Russell
suggest Russia is Gog and Magog: Today, Russia has relations with Syria, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah, Israels mortal enemies....
EVEN NOW Russia gives technical, military, and diplomatic aid to Iran
from wiki pedia: After the mid-50's and throughout the remainder of the Cold War the Soviets unequivocally supported various Arab regimes over Israel. With Israel emerging as a close Western ally,it lead to the declaration of Zionism as an ideological enemy.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOWEVER THERE ARE EVIDENCES TO SUGGEST that the source material used by 19th century Bible expositors was flawed. It may have been an error of early historians that was adopted by all as fact that suggested Gog and Magog was referring to Russia. I myself read so much my eyes nearly glazed over in attempting to discover who these players were in Ezekiel 38. ;
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Could it have been IRAN- OR---GERMANY or BOTH?
as one source suggests and I quote:
as one source suggests and I quote:
It is therefore not contradictory when some sources identify Magog with Scythia (Herodotus 1:125); which, it is said, migrated to what is now known as Germany. Linguistically,
the Scythians were related to the Iranians, and hence, to the Persians
and the Medes. It is therefore significant that there was a Persian
tribe known as the Germanians
=====================================certainly
Germany was a terrible foe to the people of Israel, the worst in
history. Could this prophecy not refer to the Holocaust itself in some
way?
OR Could it have been ENGLAND and the EUROPEAN NATIONS?
as another source suggests:
The
population of the land in which Russia is situated (Europe), consists
of two main races, Slavs and Teutons. The latter includes the British
and the Germans. This clearly shows not only that Gog is the name of the
Eastern nations of Europe, but also that Magog is the name of the
Western nations of that continent, i.e., the nations known as Teutons.
It is also clear that in the beginning both these races lived in the
same land. Gog and Magog were the titles of the ancestors of both Europe
and Russia. Further evidence of this is found in the fact that from
very ancient times the statues of Gog and Magog are found installed in
front of the famous Guildhall of London. If these names had nothing to
do with the ancestors of these people, why should their statues be
installed in this manner before the chief assembly house of the nation?
The
reference to these as given in the Scriptures, together with the
historical evidence as furnished by these statues in London, establishes
it with utmost certainty that Gog and Magog are no fictitious names but
are the names of two ancient peoples which inhabit the Continent of
Europe and whose influence together covers the whole of the Earth.
++
++
OR: Could it be that Gog refers to the Pope? another source:
ANCIENT NATIONS OF EZEKIEL 38/39 Ezekiel 38/39 makes reference to a group of ancient nations that are all found in Asia Minor: Magog BEING (Lydia), Meshech, Tubal, Togarmah and Gomer. The correct identification of these nations comes from the “Royal Court Records of the Assyrians”; the primary source on this subject. These same Assyrian Court records are referred to in the Bible (Ezra 4:15, 19).
LYDIAN
MIGRATION TO ITALY An early Lydian dynasty experienced a prolonged
famine which caused half of the Lydian population to migrate to the west
coast of Italy, just north of Rome. The Romans called these Lydian
migrants “Etruscans.” The Etruscans settled in an area called Tuscany
and they helped found the city of Rome and jump start the Roman
civilization. Hundreds of years after this migration, the Lydian
population in Asia Minor came to be ruled by a militant ruler whom the
Greeks called “Gyges of Lydia.” To the Assyrians this same leader was
known as “Gugu King of Ludu,” and “Gugu of Magugu.” Ezekiel referred to
this same leader as “Gog of Magog” where “Magog” means “the land of
Gog.”
So
if Gog of Magog was a militant Lydian who founded Roman civilization,
perhaps ezek 38 refers to Rome.....and the Roman empire is the
foundation of the Papacy, so perhaps Gog is the Pope.
I ALSO FOUND Much evidence and opinion that GOG AND MAGOG are from ancient Turkey, hinting at a Turkish invasion... That seems unlikely based on their military strength, while formidable, not matching that of Israel...but perhaps as the latest utterances from the Turkish leader Ergodan are every bit the same anti-Semitic rantings we have come to expect to hear from the leaders of Iran and Hezbollah.
After
all it was The TURKISH OTTOMAN EMPIRE THAT LOST CONTROL OF THE HOLY
LAND TO THE BRITISH DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR, INCLUDING JERUSALEM.
Could the prophecies be referring to that very time that we as Bible
Students refer to as the beginning of the Time of Trouble?
CONCLUSIONS?
At least as of now, May 1 2018
After reading another long synopsis by another researcher on the subject I was intrigued by his methodology, as he correctly points out that most expositions of the nations of Ezek 38 have an inconsistent method of reckoning, using TWO DISPARATE METHODS OF RECKONING TOGETHER AT THE SAME TIME:
most expositors use both geographic method tracing, meaning, where the people were and are,
and then also the bloodline method, tracing who the people were and where they went throughout history.
He himself uses only the geographic method to hint at Turkey being the Gog and Magog leader,
and he concludes he does so, quote:
to highlight the need for a consistent methodology among prophecy teachers ... If someone wishes to argue that we should in fact use the bloodline-lineage-migration method,.... I would also demand that it be used consistently, thus involving a majority of the nations of the earth—a position I have yet to see a single interpreter argue for. "
I AM THE VOLUNTEER - THE SINGLE INTERPRETER he has never heard of!
At this point I felt he was right, but in the opposite way he would expect. He presented a humongous list of nations that would have to be included if we used the bloodline argument to identify these nations and peoples....I mean the list contained nearly every nation that exists....
Thanks for reading what are just my own opinion based on my studies of the Bible, Pastor Russell, Bro. Johnson, history and current events THAT Ezekiel 38 and Zechariah 14 ARE both synonymous AND at or near their CONCLUSION.
This ends the Ezekiel 38 study for now, until the next segment, Lord willing. I pray some are blessed by it. Feel free to share and comment.
Yours in Truth,
Bro. Regan
P.S. Here's the full chapter and more notes below.
Ezekiel 38 American Standard Version (ASV)
38 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
3 and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal:
4 and
I will turn thee about, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring
thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed
in full armor, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them
handling swords;
5 Persia, Cush, and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet;
6 Gomer,
and all his hordes; the house of Togarmah in the uttermost parts of the
north, and all his hordes; even many peoples with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, yea, prepare thyself, thou, and all thy companies that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After
many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come
into the land that is brought back from the sword, that is gathered out
of many peoples, upon the mountains of Israel, which have been a
continual waste; but it is brought forth out of the peoples, and they
shall dwell securely, all of them.
9 And
thou shalt ascend, thou shalt come like a storm, thou shalt be like a
cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy hordes, and many peoples with
thee.
10 Thus
saith the Lord Jehovah: It shall come to pass in that day, that things
shall come into thy mind, and thou shalt devise an evil device:
11 and
thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will
go to them that are at rest, that dwell securely, all of them dwelling
without walls, and having neither bars nor gates;
12 to
take the spoil and to take the prey; to turn thy hand against the waste
places that are now inhabited, and against the people that are gathered
out of the nations, that have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in
the middle of the earth.
13 Sheba,
and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions
thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take the spoil? hast thou
assembled thy company to take the prey? to carry away silver and gold,
to take away cattle and goods, to take great spoil?
14 Therefore,
son of man, prophesy, and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: In
that day when my people Israel dwelleth securely, shalt thou not know
it?
15 And
thou shalt come from thy place out of the uttermost parts of the north,
thou, and many peoples with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a
great company and a mighty army;
16 and
thou shalt come up against my people Israel, as a cloud to cover the
land: it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring thee
against my land, that the nations may know me, when I shall be
sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
17 Thus
saith the Lord Jehovah: Art thou he of whom I spake in old time by my
servants the prophets of Israel, that prophesied in those days for many
years that I would bring thee against them?
18 And
it shall come to pass in that day, when Gog shall come against the land
of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah, that my wrath shall come up into my
nostrils.
19 For
in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in
that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
20 so
that the fishes of the sea, and the birds of the heavens, and the
beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth,
and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my
presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places
shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
21 And
I will call for a sword against him unto all my mountains, saith the
Lord Jehovah: every man's sword shall be against his brother.
22 And
with pestilence and with blood will I enter into judgment with him; and
I will rain upon him, and upon his hordes, and upon the many peoples
that are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire,
and brimstone.
23 And
I will magnify myself, and sanctify myself, and I will make myself
known in the eyes of many nations; and they shall know that I am
Jehovah.
P.P.S. Futher notes demonstrating the people in the land of Israel now are indeed Jews.
Isaiah 11:11-12 NIV -
"In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim
the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt,
from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and
from the islands of the sea. He will raise a banner for the nations and
gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of
Judah from the four quarters of the earth."
Psalm 107:2-3 NIV -
"Let the redeemed of the LORD say this -- those he redeemed from the
hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west,
from north and south.
2 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha! and, The ancient high places are ours in possession;
3 therefore
prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because, even because
they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye
might be a possession unto the residue of the nations, and ye are taken
up in the lips of talkers, and the evil report of the people;
4 therefore,
ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Jehovah: Thus saith
the Lord Jehovah to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses
and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the cities that are
forsaken, which are become a prey and derision to the residue of the
nations that are round about;
5 therefore
thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I
spoken against the residue of the nations, and against all Edom, that
have appointed my land unto themselves for a possession with the joy of
all their heart, with despite of soul, to cast it out for a prey.
6 Therefore
prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains and
to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, Thus saith the
Lord Jehovah: Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my wrath,
because ye have borne the shame of the nations:
7 therefore
thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I have sworn, saying, Surely the nations
that are round about you, they shall bear their shame.
8 But
ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and
yield your fruit to my people Israel; for they are at hand to come.
9 For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn into you, and ye shall be tilled and sown;
10 and
I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it;
and the cities shall be inhabited, and the waste places shall be
builded;
11 and
I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and be
fruitful; and I will cause you to be inhabited after your former estate,
and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know
that I am Jehovah.
.................................and Ezekiel 37 we studied in class recently, as we learned that the valley of the dry bones was the Jewish national hopes, and that when the dry bones received flesh and muscles and skin it signified symbolically the ressurrection of the nation of Israel, of jewish national hopes
JEREMIAH 31:
8 Behold,
I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the
uttermost parts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the
woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great
company shall they return hither.
10 Hear
the word of Jehovah, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar
off; and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as
shepherd doth his flock.
11 For Jehovah hath ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.
Jeremiah 32:37 Behold,
I will gather them out of all the countries, whither I have driven them
in mine anger, and in my wrath, and in great indignation; and I will
bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely:
38 and they shall be my people, and I will be their God:
44 Men
shall buy fields for money, and subscribe the deeds, and seal them, and
call witnesses, in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about
Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the
hill-country, and in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the
South: for I will cause their captivity to return, saith Jehovah.
FRIENDS,
this we have seen in our lifetime. Israel was saved out of the ravages
of WWII and regathered to a once desolate land nearly bereft on
inhabitants to re-establish her ancient dwelling places, and there they
are today...........even right now, never before in the history of the
world has anything like this occurred....and their existence as a
nation today is proof that The Word of God is True.
P.P.P.S. Re: Psalm 83
NOW, what does the Bible say about what we are yet to expect to see happen after this, and yet subsequent to the establishment of messiah's kingdom on earth?
(Psalm 83:1-5)
83 O God, keep not thou silence: Hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.
2 For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult; And they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
3 Thy take crafty counsel against thy people, And consult together against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; That the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent; Against thee do they make a covenant:
Recall the PLO have a charter or covenant as they call it , calling for the destruction of the nation of Israel. Most of the world agrees. The Lord God of Israel has other plans!
God bless the Jews! Isa 40:1
